TRAINING
ROAP AMERICAS – 2022 EDITION
Welcome to Delos's advanced oral advocacy training programme in international arbitration. This consists of two courses: one on oral submissions, the other on cross-examination. Find out more here, meet our leading faculty for the Americas, Asia, EMEA and LATAM editions, and meet our talented participants for the Americas, Asia, EMEA and LATAM editions, both practising attorneys and testifying experts. If you would like to attend a mock hearing and follow the oral submissions live, you can find out more here.
Please meet the ROAP Americas Co-Chairs, Faculty and Convenors, comprising leading international arbitration counsel based across North America, who also regularly sit as arbitrators and senior quantum experts:
From left to right and top to bottom, we are fortunate to have Roberto Aguirre, Jessica Beess und Chrostin, Kate Brown de Vejar, Hagit Elul, Laura Hardin, James Hosking, Rachel Kent, Rafael Llano, Ben Love, Adrián Magallanes, Neal Mizrahi, Elsa Ortega, Tafadzwa Pasipanodya, John Pierce, Paul Schmitt, Mallory Silberman, Luke Sobota, Lauren Tomasich. Their short bios are set out below.
Laura Hardin is a Managing Director in in Alvarez & Marsal’s Disputes & Investigations group. She is co-chair of the Alvarez & Marsal International Arbitration Group and heads the firm’s international arbitration practice in the United States. Ms. Hardin has extensive experience providing business valuation, damages quantification and forensic accounting services on a variety of engagements. She is regularly recognized as one of the most highly regarded experts and thought leaders in the Global Arbitration Review’s “Who’s Who” of International Arbitration Expert Witnesses (including in the current year 2021-2022) and she also regularly appears on Who’s Who Legal’s List of Energy Experts.
Ms. Hardin has been engaged on international arbitration cases brought before ICC, ICDR, LCIA, SCC, ICSID, SIAC, PCA and ad hoc tribunals, involving the valuation of investments and calculation of damages suffered for disputes in a variety of industries. In particular, she has been involved in numerous of investor-state and commercial arbitrations involving oil & gas, power generation, telecommunications, financial institutions, metals & mining, real estate construction and development projects and agribusiness.
Ms. Hardin is fluent in Russian and has worked extensively on engagements involving entities or assets in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia. Ms. Hardin has also worked on engagements involving South America including Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, and Trinidad & Tobago, Ecuador, in North Africa, and in Asia.
Ms. Hardin has developed and taught classes on damage theory, valuation, expert discovery, expert report writing, and various international arbitration-related topics.
Ms. Hardin holds a MBA from the George Washington University and a BA in Russian language and literature from Wesleyan University. She is also a certified valuation analyst (CVA) with the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA) and is currently a Vice President of the Houston, TX NACVA Chapter.
Rachael Kent is a partner and vice-chair of WilmerHale's International Arbitration Practice Group, resident in the firm’s Washington, DC office. Ms. Kent has more than 20 years of experience representing clients in a wide variety of commercial and investment disputes in arbitration proceedings seated in common law and civil law jurisdictions worldwide. Her experience includes ad hoc and institutional arbitrations under the rules of the ICC, LCIA, HKIAC, ICDR, SIAC, WIPO, ICSID, UNCITRAL and others. She has recently represented parties in disputes in the energy, mining, aerospace, defense, pharmaceutical, construction, insurance, telecommunications, technology and retail sectors, among others.
Ms. Kent has taught International Commercial Arbitration at the Georgetown University Law Center, the Duke University School of Law, and the University of Michigan Law School, and she frequently speaks and writes on topics related to international arbitration. Ms. Kent received her JD from the Duke University School of Law.
Neal Mizrahi is an expert in business valuation and the quantification of economic damages in complex disputes. He has practiced in these areas for 17 years and has prepared numerous reports relied upon by courts and tribunals globally. He has extensive testifying experience and has been ranked as a top expert in Canada and globally by Who’s Who Legal since 2014.
He holds the Chartered Professional Accountant (Chartered Accountant) and Chartered Business Valuator designations.
Mr. Mizrahi has provided services to clients in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He has testified in international arbitration proceedings in the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Federal Court of Canada, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.
Mr. Mizrahi has led and acted as expert in engagements in resource and extractive industries (i.e. oil and gas, mining and minerals), construction, manufacturing, services, and software, and other sectors. He has worked on matters involving expropriation, breach of contract, and has significant experience with post-acquisition disputes.
Mr. Mizrahi has significant experience in the context of mergers and acquisitions. He has acted as a valuator in the context of transactions. For instance, he recently provided a fairness opinion for a transaction involving a large publicly listed oil and gas company. He has been involved in due diligence, including as an advisor to parties and underwriters of Representation and Warranties insurance. He has also been retained by the Competition Bureau of Canada to provide analyses on post‐acquisition efficiencies resulting from proposed mergers.
He has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Schulich School of Business at York University and the Rotman School of Management, where he taught courses in accounting, valuation at the undergraduate and graduate levels for nearly a decade.
Mr. Mizrahi is consistently ranked in the Global Arbitration Review’s The International Who’s Who of Arbitration, which lists the most highly regarded experts globally, in each year from 2014 to 2022 and as a “Thought Leader.” Separately, in Canada, among the list of 14, he was one of two “Most Highly Regarded” experts in 2020 and 2021.
In addition, he was listed as a top Construction Expert Witness in Canada.
Prior to joining EY, Mr. Mizrahi led the Canadian valuation and damage quantification practice of a large consulting firm.
Elsa Ortega has more than twenty years of experience in large and complex cases of international commercial arbitration, both ad hoc and administered under the arbitration rules of several arbitral institutions, such as the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), and the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), acting as party counsel, arbitrator and chair of arbitral tribunals in numerous cases in diverse sectors and industries. Since July 2022, she is head of the dispute resolution practice of Creel, García-Cuellar, Aiza y Enriquez in Mexico City.
Ms. Ortega has been appointed by the Mexican government to be part of the Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes of the USMCA and is a member of the Instituto Mexicano del Arbitraje (IMA). She is also part of the World Commission on Arbitration of the ICC, a member of the Committee for the Proposal of Arbitrators of the International Chamber of Commerce Mexico (ICC Mexico), part of the ICDR International Panel of Arbitrators and Mediators, and chair of its Translation Committee. She teaches ADR in the Master’s Degree in Private Law of the School of Law of the Universidad Anáhuac México. She co-authored the book Ley Mexicana de Arbitraje en Materia Comercial and is a regular speaker on arbitration and dispute resolution at various seminars and specialized meetings both in Mexico and abroad.
Ms. Ortega is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. For several years now, she has been recognized in Chambers Latin America Guide, Chambers Global and WWL Mexico: Arbitration.
Tafadzwa Pasipanodya is a partner in the international litigation and arbitration department of the law firm of Foley Hoag LLP and chair of its Africa practice. She has represented sovereign states and state entities from all over the world in more than 30 international disputes before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea, and tribunals constituted pursuant to all the major arbitral rules, including ICSID, UNCITRAL, the ICC, and the SCC. In doing so, she has advised her clients on matters concerning mining, energy, the environment, human rights, infrastructure, the law of the sea, and territorial boundaries, among others.
Tafadzwa was named to Africa’s 30 Arbitration Powerlist by Africa Arbitration Academy, Africa Arbitration and AYA, and has been ranked by Latinvex as one of the top 32 female lawyers working on Latin American matters. She is also recognised by Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration and The Legal 500: USA and Latin America.
Tafadzwa is a member of the ICC Court of Arbitration, Vice President of the African Society of International Law, and on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. She holds a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law, a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and French from Macalester College. She understands English, Shona, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese.
Paul Schmitt has a broad practice focusing on various aspects of international and commercial litigation. He has represented and advised clients on various issues, including the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the Alien Tort Statute, international human rights, False Claims Act liability, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other white collar matters, commercial contractual disputes, and commercial speech rights. Paul’s clients have included foreign governments, government contractors, pharmaceutical companies, and public interest and human rights groups.
Paul has extensive appellate experience. He has argued and prevailed in appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the D.C. Court of Appeals. He has also written appellate briefs in numerous matters, including in the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Ninth and Eleventh Circuits, the D.C. Court of Appeals, and the Maryland Court of Appeals. At the trial level, Paul has participated in two state court trials and an international arbitration in Singapore.
Paul earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and his Ph.D. in European History from the University of Maryland at College Park. His doctoral dissertation focused on France’s colonial and diplomatic relationship with sub-Saharan Africa during the twentieth century.